Network security represents an important challenge for telecommunications networks. Communications between users at geographically separate locations over a network enables the users to share information; however, the opportunity for unauthorized or unintended access to the information exists. For example, sensitive information such as confidential business, financial and personal data transmitted through the network can sometimes be retrieved without the consent or knowledge of the sender. Others without authorized access to the network can interfere with communications by corrupting or modifying data, or otherwise jamming transmissions.
As the number and availability of telecommunications networks increase, so too does the need for network security that protects the information while maintaining availability to authorized users and organizations. Although private networks significantly limit the opportunities for security breaches, opportunities increase when a portion of the telecommunications network or the entire network resides in the public domain.
Different technologies have been employed to achieve various levels of network security. Encryption and scrambling techniques are often used to reduce the vulnerability of transmitted data. These techniques can be complex and often do not efficiently utilize the available network bandwidth. For example, “frequency hopping” is used to transmit data by modulating the data with a carrier signal that changes from one frequency to another as a function of time over a range of frequencies. However, only one of the available carrier frequencies is utilized at a given time and, therefore, the available system bandwidth is underutilized.
What is needed is a method to provide increased network security and to achieve high bandwidth utilization. The present invention satisfies these needs and provides additional advantages.